Positive-pressure-sealed container for a weld consumable

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates generally to a positive-pressure-sealed container that encapsulates a welding consumable in order to limit exposure of the welding consumable to an outer environment.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims benefit of priority from U.S. provisional patent application No. 63/154,398, filed Feb. 26, 2021, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.

BACKGROUND

Before use, welding consumables are at risk of being exposed to an outer environment. Such exposure can detrimentally affect the properties of the welding consumable. The environment can affect the properties of the welding consumable, particularly if the environment is humid, dirty, and contains hydrogen or oxygen.

In order to protect a welding consumable from exposure to an outer environment, weld consumable manufacturers today may place finished weld consumable products in packaging such as a sealed or unsealed plastic wrap, a cardboard box, or both. One concern with these methods of packaging is the limitation in preventing the environmental elements from seeping through small leakage gaps of the packaging material and thereby contaminating the consumable. For example, some weld consumables are placed in a vacuum-sealed container. Unfortunately, in a vacuum-sealed container, a small breach or pinhole size opening may create a pathway through the container, and, with a negative pressure inside the container, a low-pressure vacuum will pull in gas from the surrounding environment, which could lead to exposure and contamination.

As such, there exists a need for weld consumable packaging that limits or prevents the welding consumable from experiencing detrimental environmental exposure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a package for a weld consumable comprises: providing a positive-pressure-sealed container encapsulating a welding consumable, wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container is pressurized using a gas such that the pressure inside the positive-pressure-sealed container exceeds atmospheric pressure.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for manufacturing a package for a weld consumable comprises: providing a welding consumable and an unsealed container; encapsulating the welding consumable within the unsealed container; at least partially sealing the container to produce an at-least-partially-sealed container; adding a gas to the at-least-partially-sealed container to increase to above atmospheric pressure the pressure inside the at-least-partially-sealed container; and sealing the at-least-partially-sealed container to produce an airtight, positive-pressure-sealed container wherein the pressure inside the container is above atmospheric pressure.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description describe various embodiments and are intended to provide an overview or framework for understanding the nature and character of the claimed subject matter. The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the various embodiments, and are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate the various embodiments described herein, and together with the description serve to explain the principles and operations of the claimed subject matter.

DRAWINGS

The following is a description of the examples depicted in the accompanying drawings. The figures are not necessarily to scale, and certain features and certain views of the figures may be exaggerated in scale or in schematic for clarity or conciseness.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example welding consumable.

FIG. 1B illustrates example packaging for welding consumables.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an example method for manufacturing a positive-pressure-sealed container.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an example method for manufacturing a neutral-pressure-sealed container.

The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description, will be better understood when read in conjunction with the figures. It should be understood that the claims are not limited to the arrangements and instrumentality shown in the figures. Furthermore, the appearance shown in the figures is one of many ornamental appearances that can be employed to achieve the stated functions of the apparatus.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, specific details may be set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure. However, it will be clear to one skilled in the art when disclosed examples may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. For the sake of brevity, well-known features or processes may not be described in detail. In addition, like or identical reference numerals may be used to identify common or similar elements.

One or more specific embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Furthermore, as used herein, “approximately” may generally refer to an approximate value that may, in certain embodiments, represent a difference (e.g., higher or lower) of less than 0.01%, less than 0.1%, or less than 1% from the actual value. That is, an “approximate” value may, in certain embodiments, be accurate to within (e.g., plus or minus) 0.01%, within 0.1%, or within 1% of the stated value. Likewise, two values described as being “substantially the same” or “substantially similar” are approximately the same, and a material that is described as being “substantially free” of a substance includes approximately 0% of the substance. The terms “metal-core” and “metal-cored” are used herein to refer to tubular wires having a metallic sheath and a granular core, wherein the core primarily includes metallic alloying powders with low amounts (i.e., less than about 5 wt. %) of non-metallic components (e.g., slag forming agents, metal oxides, stabilizers). For example, see ANSI/ANS A5.9 Specifications for Bare Stainless Steel Welding Electrodes and Rods. As used herein, the term “non-metallic component” refers to elements and compounds of elements that are not metals or metalloids (e.g., hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, sulfur, halides).

According to certain embodiments of the present disclosure, a positive-pressure-sealed container encapsulates a welding consumable. The welding consumable may be, for example, a spool of welding wire 100, as shown in FIG. 1A. After manufacturing, the weld consumable is placed into a container 110, which may be, for example, a plastic bag, as shown in FIG. 1B. The container is then sealed to become a positive-pressure-sealed container using a known clean and/or dry gas source to provide the pressurization. The container 110 may then be placed into an outer package 120, which may be, for example, a cardboard box, as shown in FIG. 1B. Multiple containers 110 may be placed into a single outer package 120. According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the positive-pressure-sealed container could be a bucket or other packaging, rather than a plastic bag.

As an example, one could use a pressurized source of inert gas, such as argon, to pressurize a bag that contains a spool of freshly-manufactured consumable weld wire. As an alternative to using an inert gas, one could use nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or dry compressed air. The bag is then sealed while the inside of the bag and the consumable weld wire are under pressure, thereby locking in the clean, pressurized gas. The bag may be sealed while the inside of the bag and the consumable weld wire are maintained in a controlled environment, such as an environmentally-sealed chamber, to limit exposure of the welding consumable to an outer environment. According to such an embodiment, even if a small hole is introduced, the positive pressure differential will help to limit or prevent contamination of the weld consumable contained inside. Optionally, to provide an extra level of protection, a second, outer layer of packaging could be added. This outer layer could optionally also be positive pressure sealed, but would not necessarily need to be positive pressure sealed. For example, a positive-pressure-sealed bag is placed into another package such as a vacuum-sealed heavy duty bag. This heavy duty bag could be tear- and poke-resistant.

Alternatively, the outer package could be a cardboard box, a bucket, or other packaging.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the positive-pressure-sealed container contains a desiccant, such as silica.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the positive-pressure-sealed container comprises pressure indicator that indicates or is configured to indicate whether the pressure inside the positive-pressure-sealed container exceeds atmospheric pressure. This indicator could be a bubble that expands or protrudes when the pressure inside the positive-pressure-sealed container exceeds atmospheric pressure. The indicator could also be in the form of a meter that is able to display a pressure reading indicating the pressure inside the positive-pressure-sealed container.

The flow chart in FIG. 2 illustrates an example method for manufacturing a package for a weld consumable 200 in which the weld consumable is packaged inside a positive-pressure-sealed container. The method comprises: providing a welding consumable and an unsealed container 202; encapsulating the welding consumable within the unsealed container 204; at least partially sealing the container to produce an at-least-partially-sealed container 206; adding a gas to the at-least-partially-sealed container to increase to above atmospheric pressure the pressure inside the at-least-partially-sealed container 208; and sealing the at-least-partially-sealed container to produce an airtight, positive-pressure-sealed container wherein the pressure inside the container is above atmospheric pressure 210.

According to certain embodiments of the present disclosure, a neutral-pressure-sealed container encapsulates a welding consumable. For example, a newly-manufactured weld consumable is placed into a container. The container is then sealed to become a neutral-pressure-sealed container. The bag is then sealed while the inside of the bag and the consumable weld wire are maintained in a controlled environment or area, such as an environmentally-sealed chamber, to limit exposure of the welding consumable to an outer environment. According to such an embodiment, even if a small hole is introduced, the neutral pressure will provide an improvement over negative-pressure-sealed containers, which could “suck in” contaminants from the surrounding environment. Optionally, to provide an extra level of protection, a second, outer layer of packaging could be added. This outer layer could optionally be positive or neutral pressure sealed. For example, a neutral-pressure-sealed bag is placed into another package such as a vacuum-sealed heavy duty bag. This heavy duty bag could be tear- and poke-resistant. Alternatively, the outer package could be a cardboard box, a bucket, or other packaging. According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the neutral-pressure-sealed container could be a bucket or other packaging. According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the neutral-pressure-sealed container contains a desiccant, such as silica.

The flow chart in FIG. 3 illustrates an example method for manufacturing a package for a weld consumable 300 in which the weld consumable is packaged inside a neutral-pressure-sealed container. The method comprises: providing a welding consumable and an unsealed container 302; placing the welding consumable and the unsealed container in a controlled environment in order to limit exposure of the welding consumable to an outer environment 303; encapsulating the welding consumable within the unsealed container 304; at least partially sealing the container to produce an at-least-partially-sealed container 306; sealing the at-least-partially-sealed container to produce an airtight, neutral-pressure-sealed container wherein the pressure inside the container is at or close to atmospheric pressure 310.

The method of packaging described in the present disclosure could be used for any weld consumable, including a variety of consumable types, such as: wire spools, wire drums, stick electrodes, or filler rod. The wire could be self-shielded wire, flux-cored wire, a metal-cored wire, or a filler rod. The method of packaging described in the present disclosure may be particularly advantageous in the case of an aluminum weld consumable, due to aluminum's strong tendency to oxidize and potentially trap hydrogen and contaminants within the oxidized layer.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, when filling the container with gas, one may take care regarding the volume of gas inside the container. More specifically, one may aim to limit the volume of gas added in order to ensure that the container can still fit into an outer package. For example, where the container is a plastic bag and the outer package is a cardboard box, one might limit the gas added to the plastic bag so that the plastic bag can fit into the cardboard box without causing the sides of the cardboard box to bulge. According to another aspect of the present disclosure, one might specifically design the shape of the plastic bag in order to ensure that it fits into the cardboard box. Where multiple plastic bags are being placed into a single cardboard box, it may be even more important to limit the level of inflation to ensure that the multiple plastic bags can all be inserted into the single cardboard box.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, it may be advantageous to manufacture the positive-pressure-sealed container at a lower altitude than a location to which the positive-pressure-sealed container will later be shipped. This is because the lower ambient pressure (surrounding atmospheric pressure) at the higher location will cause a greater expansion of the gas inside the positive-pressure-sealed container. This may also mean that one may wish to over-inflate the positive-pressure-sealed container when manufacturing at a higher altitude and under-inflate the positive-pressure-sealed container when manufacturing at a lower altitude.

While only certain features of the present disclosure have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the present disclosure.

Some of the elements described herein are identified explicitly as being optional, while other elements are not identified in this way. Even if not identified as such, it will be noted that, in some examples, some of these other elements are not intended to be interpreted as being necessary, and would be understood by one skilled in the art as being optional.

While the present disclosure has been described with reference to certain implementations, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the scope of the present method or system. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the present disclosure without departing from its scope. For example, systems, blocks, or other components of disclosed examples may be combined, divided, re-arranged, or otherwise modified. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the particular implementations disclosed. Instead, the present disclosure will include all implementations falling within the scope of the appended claims, both literally and under the doctrine of equivalents. 

1. A package for a weld consumable comprising: a positive-pressure-sealed container encapsulating a welding consumable; wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container is pressurized using a gas such that the pressure inside the positive-pressure-sealed container exceeds atmospheric pressure.
 2. The package of claim 1, wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container is a bag.
 3. The package of claim 1, further comprising an outer container that encapsulates the positive-pressure-sealed container.
 4. The package of claim 3, wherein the outer container is a second bag, a cardboard box, or a bucket.
 5. The package of claim 4, wherein the outer container is a second bag, and the second bag is tear-resistant and poke-resistant.
 6. The package of claim 1, wherein the welding consumable is an aluminum welding wire, a self-shielded wire, a flux-cored wire, a metal-cored wire, or a filler rod.
 7. The package of claim 1, wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container contains nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or an inert gas.
 8. The package of claim 1, wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container contains an inert gas and the inert gas is argon.
 9. The package of claim 1, wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container contains a desiccant.
 10. The package of claim 1, further comprising a pressure indicator that indicates or is configured to indicate whether the pressure inside the positive-pressure-sealed container exceeds atmospheric pressure.
 11. A method for manufacturing a package for a weld consumable comprising: providing a welding consumable and an unsealed container; encapsulating the welding consumable within the unsealed container; at least partially sealing the container to produce an at-least-partially-sealed container; adding a gas to the at-least-partially-sealed container to increase to above atmospheric pressure the pressure inside the at-least-partially-sealed container; and sealing the at-least-partially-sealed container to produce an airtight, positive-pressure-sealed container wherein the pressure inside the container is above atmospheric pressure.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the unsealed container is a bag.
 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising encapsulating the positive-pressure-sealed container inside an outer container.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein the outer container is a second bag, a cardboard box, or a bucket.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the outer container is a second bag, and the second bag is tear-resistant and poke-resistant.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein the welding consumable is an aluminum welding wire, a self-shielded wire, a flux-cored wire, a metal-cored wire, or a filler rod.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container contains nitrogen, carbon dioxide, or an inert gas.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container contains an inert gas and the inert gas is argon.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein the positive-pressure-sealed container contains a desiccant.
 20. The method of claim 11, further comprising including in the positive-pressure-sealed container a pressure indicator that indicates or is configured to indicate whether the pressure inside the positive-pressure-sealed container exceeds atmospheric pressure. 